One of the most common dental pathologies is dental cysts. Cysts generally occur more often in the jaws than in any other bone. Usually they are round or oval in shape, resembling a fluid filled balloon. Cysts are normally radiolucent and grow slowly, and can sometimes causing displacement and resorption of the teeth. Clinically dental related cysts appear fluctuant inside the mouth.
Typically, detection of dental pathologies is performed by a dentist during a clinical examination of a patient. Sometimes extra oral swelling may be seen depending upon the nature and the extent of the cyst. By aspirating the fluid with a syringe inserted into the swelling, the dentist can roughly diagnose the cyst. However, the exact extension and number of teeth involved in the cystic region cannot be accurately determined.
In recent applications, dental diagnostic imaging methods are employed in confirming the presence and the extent of cysts, tumors, etc. in the oral cavity. Dental imaging techniques include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US), and intra-oral and extra-oral radiography. It has been observed that dental radiographs greatly assist in the identification and evaluation of oral pathologies like dental cysts, tumor and cancer.
However, the image processing-based detection techniques currently employed are not automated, and diagnosis is generally performed by manually examining the radiographic image of the oral cavity. Therefore, detection using such techniques is usually subjective and may vary in accuracy due to factors such as viewing conditions and dentist expertise, among others. In addition, such techniques are not adequate to determine a severity level of the detected cysts.